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Kitchen Nightmares Premieres Tonight!

It may be Talk Like a Priate Day, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s Loudmouth Opinionated Chef Day. That’s because tonight is the premiere of the American edition of Kitchen Nightmares, the television show in which British celebrity chef (and Hell’s Kitchen host) Gordon Ramsay has a week to help an ailing restaurant turn itself around.

I’m a fan of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, the British series on which the American version is based. I suspect that the American version will have the swear words bleeped out, and I wonder if Ramsay will act like he does in the British series — more like the passionate guy who cares about his craft and helping a restaurant rather than the caricature of a chef-as-cussing-dictator that you see on Hell’s Kitchen. If this L.A. Times article is any indication, I think he’ll end up more like the latter:

Despite notoriously being a man with a temper, the full Ramsay is far more rounded than the figure he cuts for the American market, where his sharp edges, short fuse and tactlessness are sold as the main course. Appearing alongside other celebrities on British talk shows or hosting his own “The F-Word” (seen here on BBC America), in which he functions as a kind of extreme Martha Stewart, he can be quite sweet and even humble in his compulsively competitive way.

As was “Hell’s Kitchen,” however, the local version of “Kitchen Nightmares” has been Fox-ified to a fare-thee-well. When it comes to reality television, the American palate is apparently so jaded, its sensibilities so worn, that we need our matter not only predigested but slathered with ketchup and shoved straight down our throats. Whereas the British “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” is fundamentally a food show — it has interesting things to show you about how a restaurant runs and a kitchen works, the wonders of local markets and what you can make from them if you’re Gordon Ramsay or willing to follow his instructions — the Fox edition emphasizes mishap, argument and emotional breakdown almost to the exclusion of cuisine.

Ah, well. I’ll still be tuning in to FOX tonight at 9:00 p.m. to see the fireworks.

Anthony Bourdain’s Overrated Menu

Speaking of loudmouth opinionated chefs, you might want to check out Anthony Bourdain’s Overrated Menu from Radar magazine’s Hype Report. In it, he points out overrated items that you’ll find on the menu of many “fine dining” restaurants.

Scenes from an Episode of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (the British Edition)

In case you haven’t seen the show, here’s most of the episode in which Ramsay tries to turn “Oliver’s” around. This one’s got family drama, the usual cussing and a medical emergency to boot! (One segment of the show is missing.)

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, “Oliver’s”, Act 1

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, “Oliver’s”, Act 2

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, “Oliver’s”, Act 3

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, “Oliver’s”, Act 4

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, “Oliver’s”, Act 6

Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, “Oliver’s”, Act 7

Officials say a large animal may have gotten into one of the utility’s conductors, leading to the large scale failure.

(See this posting for the earlier report.)

If you’d heard about the segment on the morning TV show The View in which the new castmember can’t answer the question “Is the world round?” and wanted to see the clip, here it is:

Can’t see the video window? Click here.

There’s a big power outage right across downtown Accordion City at the moment. The affected area is bounded by:

• Spadina on the west
• Yonge on the east
• Queen on the north
• The lake on the south

There’s no indication as to when the power will come back, but if you’ve got an appointment there this afternoon, there’s a good chance that it’s been cancelled.

According to this description in Toronto Life magazine (who are a reliable source of information for this sort of thing), the folks at Invitation House do excellent work, and they do it the old-fashioned way, eschewing computers for good old-fashioned letterpress.

Unfortunately, Invitation House is sending the wrong message with their sign, in which the letters are packed like typographic sardines:

Photo courtesy of RoninKengo.

Here’s a closer look:

Photo courtesy of RoninKengo.

Interestingly enough, Invitation House was a business spun off from a company called Kern Stationers. Kern is exactly what happened to their sign — overly so (the tracking is also a bit tight, in my opinion).

These guys should probably get a new sign made — they probably don’t want potential customers to get the impression that their wedding invitations willenduplookinglikethis.

The 40th birthday is coming up soon. There’ll be a party, and while I doubt that I can top the hot tub on a truck like a did back in ’03 (the photos will be back online soon), if I could, I’d try to top it by throwing in some tesla coil action:

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.

Yes, Whole Foods is pricey, and a bit too “bougie” for some folks, but wow, their produce is amazing and they’ve got stuff you won’t find in most other supermarkets.

(As an added bonus, it makes the Ginger Ninja feel more at home, since Whole Foods is where she did her grocery shopping when she lived in Boston. You should’ve seen her face light up when she discovered that we had one here in Accordion City, on Avenue Road, about halfway between Bloor and Davenport.)

A recent discussion on Chowhound has got the Ginger Ninja excited: there seems to be a new Whole Foods in development at Sherway Gardens, our shopping mall of choice out here in Accordion City’s west end.

We’ll still frequent the nearby No Frills and local greengrocers such as the nearby Fresh and Wild, but when we’ve got an occasion that calls for top-shelf ingredients or have a hankering for the stuff at their deli, we’ll soon have a Whole Foods nearby.